Radio Control: Soaring
NATS NEWS: The Richland Nats in Washington State will give us a very full week of Soaring. For Sailplaners who have expressed a desire to fly more than "just Duration" at the Nats, this is your opportunity to come out and support your special interest. Official events will include the usual three Duration classes, Scale, and for the first time, F3B. Provisional events are: Cross-Country, Hand-Launch, and Slope Soaring. To fit all this into the Monday-through-Saturday schedule (see my March column-and the official Nats schedule posted in the April "Competition Newsletter"), Unlimited, Standard, and Two-Meter Duration will be flown one whole day per class. In the past we've flown the three Duration classes and Scale over four days, Tuesday-Friday. One class per day could reduce the number of flights a little, but if everybody hustles and the retrievers function, it should work out OK.
1986 Nats: RC Soaring
BEFORE we get to the report on RC Soaring at the 1986 Nats, I'll have to start out with a very sad announcement. For those who have not yet heard, Dan Pruss passed away the end of June. Dan was not only Model Aviation's RC Soaring columnist but a tireless booster of all types of model Sailplanes. We will not be able to count all the things he did for our great hobby/sport. He will truly be missed. I'd like to share with you the following piece by Skip Miller. Dan was the U.S. F3B team manager for our first three teams in 1977, '79, and '81. Skip was a team member in '77 and '79 and won the first-ever World Championships in South Africa in 1977. They were very close friends.
Radio Control: Soaring
CONGRATULATIONS to our new F3B team: Steve Work (Albuquerque, NM), Rich Spicer (San Jose, CA), and Steve Lewis (Santa Ana, CA). Alternate members are Larry Jolly and Seth Dawson. The German-made King and the Spicer-developed Synergy dominated the finals. Two Kings and three Synergys were in the top five; in total there were seven Kings and four Synergys out of 17 contestants. The 1987 F3B World Championships will be held at Achmer Airport near Osnabruck in the northwest corner of Germany, not far from Bremen. The date is July 24-August 2, 1987. The Contest Director will be Hans-Joachim Kunze. The late Dan Pruss was to have been an FAI jury member but will be replaced by either Geoff Dalimer or Sandy Pimenoff.
Radio Control: Soaring
S.O.A.R. SCALE UPRISING. The SOAR club will hold an all-scale, two-day contest on July 11-12, 1987. Site is the club's sod-farm field in Oswego, IL. Here's hoping you'll get fired enough to finish that Scale job that's been residing in the closet! Contest Coordinator Steve Moskal sent contest info and photos of his beautiful new Schweizer 1-26B. Let's let Steve describe both: "The Scale Uprising was Dan Pruss" idea, but toward the end he met with me, Jack Hiner, and Glen Poole to make sure we would develop it into an event worthy of SOAR's traditions. In doing this, we honor Dan's memory and his spirit of furthering all aspects of our sport. Actually, we hope to make it relaxed, and the Team/Proxy event might resurrect some birds that have been hidden from sight because they weren't considered easily-flyable by their builders. Classes include Military, Primary/Hang Glider, Flying Wing, Motor Glider, Sport pre-1946, and Sport post-1946. There will also be several special awards.
Radio Control: Soaring
CLUB OF THE MONTH: The Portland Area Sailplane Society. PASS is a very active group in our great Pacific Northwest and big boosters of Bob Dodgson's series of designs. Club officers are Dave Johnson, Tom Brightbill, and Craig Robinson. Co-editors of their excellent newsletter are Barry Kurath and Kevin Coleman. Barry passes along the following: "We have been around since 1976, and several charter members are still active. Membership has been at 35 or so for most of the club's history, but it appears to be going through a rapid growth spurt right now. Some of the reasons for this seem to be related to improved publicity. An information sheet has been distributed to area hobby shops, we have been on TV news locally, and we have been getting good coverage in the national model press. The club had been somewhat narrowly focused with most of the active members concerned only with the Northwest Soaring Society contest season.
